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US Championship Fantasy Chess 2010 Print E-mail
May 9, 2010
Fantasychessimage2010.jpgFantasy Chess 2010 is here!

This year's 2010 US Chess Championship fantasy competition reverts to the simple and fun format of selecting a six-player team of players. Your team must be rated Under 2640 USCF.  The field is very tight this year, and it is impossible to create a team that includes the top three rated players (Nakamura, Kamsky and Onischuk) so choose wisely! Scroll down to check out a chart with players' USCF and FIDE ratings. These details are also available on uschess.org/fc_2010/ but you MUST login or register and then refresh the fantasy chess homepage.

Your total fantasy score will consist of your team's score. You'll also get a bonus point if you correctly guess the champion and a bonus point for each member of the final four that you choose correctly (your final four picks do not have to be in your six-player fantasy team). Remember that this year's Championship features a brand-new format. After seven rounds, the final four will advance to a round-robin quad. Those four players will be the contenders to the Championship title. Your picks for the final four will heighten the drama of watching who advances in the crucial final rounds of the Swiss. The players who don't make the final four will continue playing two rounds of the Swiss, for a total of nine games.

See prizes, list of players and potential tiebreaks below-go to uschess.org/fc_2010/ to play! 
 
The contest will be locked, and you will be ineligible to alter your picks, on the scheduled start of round one on May 14 at 3 PM EST. Good luck and be sure to follow all the 2010 US Chess Championship action on uschesschamps.com.

Thanks to Marty Hirsch of chessmagnetschool.com for programming the contest.

*Note that the grand prizes can only be won by current USCF members. Registered members are eligible for daily prizes. Please try to find your pin # to login as a USCF member, but note that we will also check USCF IDs of all participants, and if yours is active, you are still eligible for prizes even if you're only logged on as a "registered member." 

Prizes for 2010 Fantasy Chess

A.      House of Staunton Chess pieces used by the participants (about $200 value) and a vinyl Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis chess board signed by all the participants of the US Chess Championship.
B.    1-year Silver (129.99 value) or 6-month gold subscription to chesslecture.com, the new sponsors of the 2010 Grand Prix plus a poster signed by all the participants of the 2010 US Chess Championship.  
C.  One year subscription to chessmagnetschool.com, new sponsor of the Junior Grand Prix,  Changing of the Guard DVD + 1-year Premium adult or Premium Scholastic USCF Membership extension.
D.    Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis cufflinks + 1-year Premium adult or Premium Scholastic USCF Membership extension.
E.    Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis mousepad+ 1-year USCF membership or extension.

Since winners might have different top choices, whoever finishes in first place will get the first choice amongst these five prizes, second place will get the second choice, etc. *USCF employees  can enter for bragging rights, but won't be eligible for prizes. US Championship participants can also enter but they are only eligible for bragging rights and daily prizes, not the grand prizes.

In case of a tie for one of the grand prizes, the tiebreaks will be
1.    The lower average fantasy chess team rating will win
2.    The person who correctly guessed the champion wins
3.    The final tiebreak question, what is the champion's USCF tournament performance rating, will be used. Whoever is closest wins the higher prize.

You can check on your fantasy score throughout the competition and we will keep you posted on the leaderboard. However, this year uschess.org will not be posting comprehensive daily fantasy chess updates.

Daily Book Prizes for 2010 Fantasy Chess

In rounds 1-9, there will also be DAILY BOOK PRIZES! Limit one daily prize per player, if two players tie for a daily prize both can win but random drawing will be used to break larger ties. Earlier winners pick first. 
 
Play The Alekhine by Valentin Bogdanov  
The Samisch King's Indian Uncovered by Alexander Cherniaev and Eduard Prokuronov
Play the Catalan by Nigel Davies
The Rules of Winning Chess by Nigel Davies 
Grandmaster Secrets: Counterattack by Zenon Franco
Starting Out: the Scandinavian
by Jovanka Houska
7 Ways to Smash the Sicilian by Yury Lapshun and Nick Conticello
Chess Secrets: The Giants of Power Play by Neil McDonald
Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess by Francis M. Naumann, Dr. Bradley Bailey and Jennifer Shahade   
Starting Out: The Trompowsky Attack by Richard Palliser  
Dangerous Weapons: The Pirc and Modern by Richard Palliser, Colin McNab and James Vigus
Dangerous Weapons: The King's Indian: Dazzle Your Opponents
by Richard Palliser, Glenn Flear and Yelena Dembo
Dangerous Weaons: The Benoni and the Benko: Dazzle Your Opponents by Richard Palliser, John Emms, Chris Ward and Gawain Jones
Fighting the Ruy Lopez by Milos Pavlovic   
White Repertoire for Tournament Players: French Defence Advance Variation Volume I and Volume II
by Evgeny Sveshnikov*
Starting out: Sicilian Scheveningen by Craig Pritchett
Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport by Jennifer Shahade
The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin (hardcover)
The Caro-Kann by Peter Wells
Play 1...Nc6 by Christoph Wisnewski 

*Note that the bonus prizes for correctly picking the final four are not relevant to daily prizes.
**We are packaging these books together as a set, so one lucky 1.e4 player or French player will take home two books!
 


US Championship contenders 
(Invitations were sent out based on USCF ratings; FIDE ratings will be used to pair the event.)
    May USCF
    MAY FIDE
GM Hikaru Nakamura 2817 2733
GM Gata Kamsky 2771 2702
GM Alexander Onischuk 2765 2699
GM Varuzhan Akobian 2671 2599
GM Jaan Ehlvest 2669 2591
GM Yury Shulman 2669 2613
GM Robert Hess 2657 2590
GM Larry Christiansen 2657 2578
GM  Aleksandr Lenderman 2640 2598
GM Alexander Shabalov 2638 2585
GM Gregory Kaidanov 2633 2577
GM Joel Benjamin 2630 2565
GM Alexander Stripunsky 2621 2570
GM Benjamin Finegold 2619 2539
GM Melikset Khachiyan 2613 2539
GM Vinay Bhat 2610 2547
GM Ray Robson 2607 2569
GM Sergey Kudrin 2586 2571
GM Alex Yermolinsky 2572 2528
IM Sam Shankland 2541 2507
IM Levon Altounian 2534 2454
GM Jesse Kraai 2528 2492
GM Dmitry Gurevich 2514 2488
IM Irina Krush 2494 2455

 
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